Sermon, 27th Sunday of Ordinary Time

"But she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all of her living." (Mark 12:44)

That's a cheery way to begin Stewardship season! Normally, if I say there's more to the story than meets the eye, I wonder how many of you think, "Here comes a history lesson."  I hope that today, it's a consolation to hear that there is far more to this story than an appeal to give till it really hurts.  Jesus may be commending this poor widow.  But he is not commending the system that has brought her to the Temple.  Much more important than beautiful temples are justice and relationships.  And that, not paying the bills or keeping up the building, is the ultimate purpose of stewardship.

The first Temple in Jerusalem was built by King Solomon, the son of David.  Over the years it became seen as the one and only place where God would come down to earth.  There and only there could the children of Israel make an offering for sin, for blessing.  There and only there could the priest take those offerings and bring them into the Holy of holies, where God would hear their prayers and answer them.

The problem with that system is that it's far too easy to slide into the assumption that we've got God under control, that God is contained in this sacred place.  As the centuries passed, and as threats to the holy city came and went, the Jewish people became more convinced that all they had to do was to repeat the phrase, "The Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord!" and any enemies would slink away in defeat.  The prophet Jeremiah knew better.  With the Babylonians pressing toward Jerusalem, Jeremiah ridiculed the Jewish leaders.  "Do you really think that you can excuse your idolatry with other gods and your injustice to the poor by simply shouting, 'The Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord!"?  Eventually the Babylonians besieged the holy city, conquered it, burned it and the Temple of the Lord to the ground, and carried its people off into exile.

Seventy years later, Babylonia was conquered by Persia, and King Cyrus told the exiled Jews to go home to the land their God had promised them.  They returned and rebuilt the Temple, although it was a shadow of its former self.  But during the childhood of Jesus, Herod was the local king by the grace of the Roman Emperor.  This is the same Herod who tried to have the baby Jesus killed by slaughtering all the baby boys in Bethlehem.  Perhaps it was a guilty conscience for this and other atrocities that Herod began rebuilding the Temple.  By the time that Jesus is in Jerusalem, that Temple has become so much larger, so much more magnificent than Solomon's temple.

Of course it takes a lot of money to build something so huge, which is why every Jew was obligated to pay a tax for the support of that Temple.  It is this tax that the rich and poor alike are dropping into the treasury box today.  Here come the wealthy giving out of their abundance.  But how many of them had Jesus condemned earlier?  You were obligated to support your elderly parents, unless you declared that you would pay to support the Temple rather than your parents.  Then it was ok to stiff them.  And yet here is this poor widow, whose husband is not there to support her, and either had no sons or has lost them to death or has been stiffed by them.  But that does not relieve her of the obligation to support the Temple.  And so here she is giving all she has, a penny, to support a system of injustice and sin.  She gives her very life to support this sacred place.  Jesus may commend her self-giving.  But don't suppose for a moment that he commends the system that obligated her to this sacrifice.

If that isn't already clear, Jesus hammers the point home right after this scene.  He and his disciples are leaving the Temple.  They are in awe of this magnificent structure.  But Jesus says: So.  In your lifetime, you will see this whole building torn to the ground, with not one stone on top of another!  Indeed, 35 years later, the Romans responded to the Jewish rebellion by conquering Jerusalem, again, and destroying the Temple, again, leaving only that Western wall which today is also called the Wailing Wall.

This place is a sacred space.  It is made sacred by God's presence in the sacrament that is always here.  But it is also sacred thanks to the People of God who worship together, on Sunday, and Monday through Thursday morning, and on Tuesday evening.  Jesus commends the self giving that makes this space holy and sacred.  But that is not enough.  I assure you that in a thousand, maybe two thousand years, this building will not be here.  It is here now.  But it is not just here for the sake of its beauty, or for us who are here today.  If Stewardship in this parish ever becomes a system that seeks only its self-preservation, it will become as unjust as the Temple in Jerusalem.

The only way to preserve ourselves is to give ourselves, to each other and to those who come to us when we open our door, at a yard sale, a festival.  It is only in the giving of our time, talent and treasure -- to each other and the outsider -- that we are truly living.